BOSTON (August 20, 2015) - "Data-driven instruction" has become a watchword in education, but interpreting and using data for instructional planning remains a formidable hurdle for teachers, many of whom lack the necessary tools, time, or training. To help educators successfully address this problem, Lexia Learning, a Rosetta Stone® company, has launched RAPID (Reading Assessment for Prescriptive Instructional Data) Assessment(TM), a computer-adaptive screener and diagnostic tool for students in grades 3-12.

Designed for administration in the fall, winter, and spring, RAPID uses a computer-adaptive process to identify and monitor reading and language skills so that teachers can quickly acquire actionable data for instruction and measure the long-term growth of each student's skills. In addition to measuring the skills that are highly predictive of reading success -- word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge, and reading comprehension-RAPID helps educators make decisions within a Response to Intervention or Multi-Tier System of Support model by helping to determine which students are at-risk for difficulty and then providing guidance on the level of instructional intensity needed for student success. RAPID also provides a diagnostic profile for each student, pinpointing specific academic areas that should be targeted. Additionally, the diagnostic profile links directly to Lexia-provided instructional strategies for the teacher and identifies students with similar profiles for small-group instruction.

This new assessment is the result of Lexia's ongoing partnership with researchers from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), a multidisciplinary research center at Florida State University. FCRR's continuing research and innovation in the area of language and literacy assessment was instrumental in determining the most predictive skills, testing methodologies, and strategies to convey meaningful data in a manner that best informs instruction.

"This partnership has led to the creation of an assessment that breaks new ground in terms of efficiency and effectiveness," said Lexia President Nick Gaehde. "RAPID's computer-adaptive approach draws-upon both an extensive research base and large resource bank to create a fast, reliable assessment of growth as well as domain-specific skill development."

"With RAPID, teachers can now obtain an in-depth measurement of reading ability within the timeframe of a typical class period," said FCRR Director Barbara Foorman, Ph.D. "This allows for more time to be spent teaching rather than administering lengthy assessments, many of which require additional time to decipher the data and determine how best to address individual student needs."

Rather than administer several lengthy assessments, teachers and administrators using RAPID obtain the information they need regarding student progress via a Reading Success Probability (RSP) score, a set of Ability Scores, and a set of Percentile Scores based on the student's grade level. All three scores are provided at the student level and then aggregated to the class, grade, school, and district levels.

Each student receives an individual RSP score indicating the overall level of instructional intensity needed to reach grade level proficiency by the end of the school year. The RSP score then becomes a roadmap for educators with a prediction of students' future reading success on a standardized outcome measure. The Ability Score represents an estimate of each student's abilities and development in a particular skill area within and across grade levels (for example, their current level of vocabulary knowledge). This score, when compared to a student's prior Ability Scores, indicates relative growth in the skill. The Percentile Score shows a student's relative performance compared to grade-level norms and guides instructional strategies based on the student's personal profile of strengths and weaknesses.

These three types of information provide educators with an enormous amount of insight when determining what steps need to be taken to drive student gains. Teachers and administrators can see how many students have a high probability of success (an RSP of 70 percent or greater) and the distribution of RSP scores across a grade, school, or district. Educators can also longitudinally track students' personal skill development growth over a school year and across multiple years. Additionally, the data enables educators to track the impact of instructional interventions and programs across a school or district and administrators can use the school- and district-wide profiles to assess the need for curriculum review.

"The Gates Foundation recently published a report that showed teachers not only need data, but they need classroom instructional strategies as well," said Gaehde. "With the availability of RAPID, Lexia can help educators quickly and effectively clarify the instructional needs of students and help them meet those needs efficiently."

For more information about RAPID, visit http://www.lexialearning.com/rapid or call 1-800-435-3942.

# # #

About Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone Inc. is dedicated to changing people's lives through the power of language and literacy education. The Company's innovative, personalized language and reading programs drive positive learning outcomes in thousands of schools, businesses, government organizations and for millions of individual learners around the world.

Founded in 1992, Rosetta Stone pioneered the use of interactive software to accelerate language learning and is widely recognized today as the industry leader in providing effective language programs. The Company's cloud-based programs allow users to learn online or on-the-go via tablet or smartphone, whether in a classroom, in a corporate setting, or in a personal learning environment. Rosetta Stone is also a leader in the literacy education space, helping millions of students build fundamental reading skills through its Lexia Learning division. Additionally, the Company's Fit Brains business offers personalized brain training programs developed by neuroscientists and award-winning game designers to be fun and help keep your brain sharp.

Rosetta Stone is based in Arlington, VA, and has offices and operations around the world. For more information, visit www.rosettastone.com. "Rosetta Stone" is a registered trademark or trademark of Rosetta Stone Ltd. in the United States and other countries.

About the Florida Center for Reading Research

The Florida Center for Reading Research is a multidisciplinary research center at Florida State University that was established in 2002 by the Governor's office and Legislature. Currently, FCRR is home to nine tenured and tenure-track faculty members holding joint appointments with the College of Arts & Sciences or College of Education. The center supports 17 federal research contracts and grants with a staff of over 550 including post-doctoral fellows, senior research associates, graduate research assistants and undergraduate students. For more information, visit www.fcrr.org.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Rosetta Stone via Globenewswire

HUG#1946523

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Rosetta Stone PR's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.